Love Everyone, Even If They Love You Back

So far I have not posted anything radical on this blog, well that’s about to change. From here on out I want to have posts that will challenge your beliefs and get you thinking about big, important issues. My hope is that this post will challenge your views and give you a new perspective on a specific community.

In this post I would like to give my opinion about the homosexual community. It is obvious that more and more people are “coming out of the closet”. Laws are being passed to make it legal for them to be married, adopt children, etc… So what do we do with all this as Christians? How do we love them, but still hold to our biblical standards?

I could open this post by giving biblical proof that we are not supposed to be homosexual, but I will assume that you already know this. I have recently watched movie by Dan Merchant called Lord, Save Us from Your Followers. This movie has really presented how us Christians, just do not love like we should love. We say we are supposed to love one another, but then we push away the homosexuals. Look at it from their perspective, “These Christians say they love everyone, but then all they want to do is to take away my freedoms.”

So how do we deal with this? We need to vote according to our beliefs, but how do we let this community know that God loves them? I discussed this subject with a Pastor and I think he and his church is a great example of how we can be accepting of this community. He had a couple, a lesbian couple, start attending to his church, they liked it and wanted to get involved. They wanted to serve at church! How should the Pastor have responded to this? What response did they expect to receive based off of the way Christians have constantly tried to take away their freedoms? The Pastor considered the situation and told them that they could serve at the church, but they could not hold a teaching or leadership position. Because of the Pastors acceptance this couple probably has a radically different view of Christians, they know that Christians do love them.

I am currently taking an Evangelism course through a Bible College. In this course I was able to read a book called Evangelism Outside the Box. This book represents a very new, but accurate way we need to be looking at evangelism. People no longer start believing because of the facts we give them, they start believing after they become part of our community. In a nutshell, it talked a lot about how people are community focused instead of focused on the truth. They find the truth through community.

Because of this focus on community we need to be bringing homosexuals into our churches, our bible studies, our small groups, instead of pushing them away. We need to let them know that they are accepted and that they are loved. Many of them see Christians as “Gay Haters”. Something about this needs to change, it’s time to be loving and accepting to a community who is searching for love.

I have a friend who works at Magic Mountain and I was chatting with him over IM. He told me that he had to work Gay Day at Magic Mountain. I don’t remember the exact words he used, but he said something like this, “They are all really nice… when they are not hitting on you. Sickos…”. Right then is when it registered, they can fill up an entire theme park with people in Santa Clarita who are searching for true love, the love their heart longs for. So I responded saying something like this, “Isn’t it awesome that there are that many people who are searching for God’s love! All we have to do is to present the Gospel to them in a way that they will understand.”

We need to stop pushing away the very community who is looking the hardest for love. This is the community of people who are trying anything and everything just to find love, to be loved. It’s our turn as Christians to stop being hypocrites, and start loving everyone… even if they love you back. We need to start accepting the community who desperately wants to be accepted.

So how do we apply this? Well, I am not completely sure… I guess the church I talked about above works as one example of application. Do we still vote against them? I think we should vote according to Biblical principles. the Bible defines marriage in a certain way so we have to vote that way. We need to be finding and inviting this community into our community so that they can experience Jesus’ love, and come to know Him. So, next time you talk to a man or woman who is a part of this community don’t reject them, accept them!

Here is another great example of how we can be excepting to this community. I got to speak with a politician on this subject, Cameron Smyth. He is the former Mayor of Santa Clarita, and now is a State Assemblyman. A great Christian man! I asked him: How do Christians reach out to homosexuals, a community who is searching for love and acceptance, while still voting their values? He responded by telling me about a homosexual couple he knows and that he is good friends with them, despite the way he will be voting. He loves them as individuals, but when he comes to the polls he is going to vote his values.

I think that right now, not the church, but individual Christ followers need to start reaching out to homosexuals in every day practical ways as in the examples that have been presented here. Leo Tolstoy said, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” I think this applys to everyone wanting to change the church, but not themselves. The church, family, and government are all built on the individual. To make a change in any one of these areas we have got to start by making a change in our own lives. Today, start reaching out, start showing the acceptance we have been shown.

Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment or by sending me an email at magicbymaddux@gmail.com

Thanks for reading this blog and thanks for helping me grow as one of Christ's followers,
Brandon Maddux

EDIT (10/28/08): "as long as they were not teaching their beliefs" changed to "but they could not hold a teaching position"